


On his left

by tolieawake



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-25
Updated: 2014-11-25
Packaged: 2018-02-24 20:10:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2594909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tolieawake/pseuds/tolieawake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers has a tendency to leave his left side inexplicably open, and no-one, from SHIELD scientists to Natasha can figure out why. And then they can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On his left

It doesn't come up straight away. When Steve is first defrosted, they're too busy checking his general health and reflexes and trying to gently ease him into the new century to notice.

Natasha is the first to notice, during those nightmarish hours that later become known as the Battle of New York.

"You drop your left," she tells Steve.

In the midst of wrapping his hands for yet another go at Tony's latest attempt at an indestructible punching bag, Steve pauses.

"Thanks," he says, "I'll try to stop."

Natasha frowns, because that isn't exactly a guarantee, and then spends parts of her free time sparing with him until it's less noticeable (he never quite stops dropping his guard there).

-

Sam notices it next. In the way Natasha tends to stand on Steve's left. The way Steve will always put others on his right. Even the short conversation with Natasha where she warns him to watch Steve's left - because he keeps dropping it.

Sam doesn't know then, but while it's less noticeable than it was, - Steve working hard, when he can bare to - it's still there.

Interestingly enough, the Winter Soldier always attacks Steve from the right.

Sam doesn't know if he noticed Steve's tendency and in some weird way wants a fair fight or something, but he's glad, because he's pretty sure that if the Winter Soldier attacked Steve from the left, Steve would lose.

Sam being Sam, once Steve no longer looks like death warmed up, he brings it up.

"You drop your left," he says.

Steve grimaces. "I know."

"Wanna tell me why."

"Not really."

"Are you gonna be able to stop?"

Steve shrugs.

"Okay then."

So Sam spends a lot of time guarding Steve's left.

-

It's only when they're back in New York, Steve's best friend, ex-brainwashed-assassin in tow, that Sam thinks he begins to realize why Steve always drops his left.

Natasha takes one look at them, goes "huh" then promptly tells the best friend, ex-brainwashed-assassin something in Russian. He frowns at Steve and nods.

"You gotta stop dropping your left," Bucky tells Steve.

Steve shrugs, grinning back at him. "Why?" he asks, "you're always there."

Bucky looks particularly unimpressed, but Steve just grins at him, still giddy with the fact that Bucky is there.

-

"So," Sam asks Steve later, "your left?"

Steve shrugs, but Bucky, walking into the room, scoffs. "It's 'cos of his hearing," he says. When Sam only blinks in incomprehension, Bucky explains. "Stevie was mostly deaf in his left ear," he says, "so I always made sure to keep to his left, that way I could protect him from anything coming at him on that side that he might not hear."

"Huh," Sam says. It makes sense, although he's fairly sure that... "But Steve's no longer deaf, right?" he asks.

"Nope," Bucky agrees, "serum fixed that right up, along with everything else," (Sam studiously decides to leave asking about 'everything else' for another day), "but the punk's never seemed to get it into his head that he needs to guard his left now."

"Don't need to," Steve replies without looking up, "still got you there to watch it for me."

Bucky scowls, but doesn't refute that, which is, Sam thinks, telling enough in its own way.

-

It is only later that he finds out that, well, when Bucky first decided to be Steve's friend - the first thing he said to him, joining a fight that Steve was losing spectacularly ('I wasn't losing,' Steve protests, 'I had 'em on the ropes.' 'Yeah, sure you did, pal,' Bucky agrees), was 'On your left'. Letting Steve know that Bucky was there and there to help him.

Years later, having never quite gotten the hang of making friends, but desperately wanting to do so and never having had a friendship closer than his one with Bucky, Steve, for lack of any better ideas, uses the same phrase to try and make friends with Sam. Hey, it worked with him and Bucky, didn't it?

**Author's Note:**

> Edited and cleaned up 16/12/14


End file.
